This invention was the subject matter of Disclosure Document Program registration number 475,724, filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Jun. 19, 2000.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of collapsible transport devices in general and in particular to a knock-down sled construction for transporting a game animal from a kill site to a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
As can be seen by reference to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,941,541; 3,771,808; 4,335,891; and, 3,982,748, the prior art is replete with myriad and diverse sled style transport devices employed for a wide variety of purposes.
While all of the aforementioned prior art constructions are more than adequate for the basic purpose and function for which they have been specifically designed, they are uniformly deficient with respect to their failure to provide a simple, efficient, and practical knock-down transport sled for hunters to retrieve downed game from the field.
As most avid hunters are all too well aware, due-to hunting pressure, it is now necessary to go deeper into the woods and further afield in order to harvest trophy caliber animals. Unfortunately, once the animal is down, the truly difficult part of the hunt begins in packing the meat, hide and horns out of the field over fairly rough and challenging terrain.
As a consequence of the foregoing situation, there has existed a longstanding need among hunters for a new and improved lightweight knock-down transport device that can easily be packed into a kill site and quickly assembled in the field to allow for the rapid retrieval of game before the meat becomes spoiled; and the provision of such a construction is a stated objective of the present invention.
Briefly stated, the transport device comprises in general a plurality of intermediate panel units, a rear brace unit and a front curved panel unit that are joined together in a releasable interlocking fashion that can be broken down for transporting the device in a compact configuration to a point of use and quickly assembled on site without the need for specialized tools.
As will be explained in greater detail further on in the specification, all of the intermediate panel units comprise generally rectangular intermediate plate members having leading and trailing edges that define oppositely facing channel openings in a releasable interlocking fashion.
The front panel unit comprises in general an elongated rectangular front plate member having a curved front portion and a trailing edge that is adapted to releasably engage the leading edge of one of the intermediate plate members in an interlocking fashion; and, the rear panel unit comprises a generally L-shaped rear plate member having a bottom edge which is adapted to releasably engage the trailing edge of one of the intermediate plate members.
In addition, all of the plate members are provided with hinged loop elements that are adapted to receive a portion of an elongated tether member for lashing an animal carcass or portion thereof to the transport device.